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Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

jarredsumner.com

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Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#11

Post by schroeding »

EddieDante wrote: post #2

This sales pitch doesn't impress me. The internet isn't fun or weird any longer because corporations have taken over, and most normies aren't going to bother to learn how to build and operate their own websites. Just like most normies aren't going to bother to become their own sysadmins so they can run GNU/Linux on their PCs. Most people are fine with the Web being what it is today: QVC with a comments section.

But the internet was already taken over by corporations during the time this article reminisces about, wasn't it?

MySpace was owned by a corporation, but allowed massive customization including custom CSS anyway. Youtube also allowed way more customization in the past (remember the old profile pages?), all those small local social networks that often allowed straight custom HTML died when Facebook expanded worldwide, they were mostly for-profit.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#13

Post by jansan »

amelius wrote: post #10

> Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? Etiquette. For example, humor is frowned upon on some forums (HN included).

HN actually holds the current record for being the most humorless forum on the internet (sorry, can't seem to find link atm).

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#14

Post by jjoonathan »

gonzo41 wrote: post #7
tarkin2 wrote: post #5

Because Google is the gatekeeper to what you see, and Google prioritises the boring and bland and CEO-friendly websites you see.

Well replace google with Facebook and Apple. Google just wants you to click adds.

Advertisers are Google's real cu$tomer and they don't like to see their ads next to your experimental goatse art.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#15

Post by Blikkentrekker »

tarkin2 wrote: post #5

Because Google is the gatekeeper to what you see, and Google prioritises the boring and bland and CEO-friendly websites you see.

Correction: English-language Google is. — I find that very often the vaunted Anglo-Saxon moralism indeed only polices English content.

I can find the most interesting and entertaining subjects searching in Japanese that do not show up when the same search is replicated in English, where it instead gives me something only barely related to my search that was simply popular enough.

It's quite simple how Twitter is actually a bastion of free expression, so long it not be in English.

Re: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)

#18

Post by winternett »

I think it's a wide-scale effect of everyone scrambling in trying to make Internet money to fund themselves through our current tough and uncertain times but finding out that a lot of the Web 3.0 stuff and the Gig economy was undercover "scammy A.F.". Many people do not have savings now because of crypto, stock manipulation, and NFT schemes...

There is a lot of heavy stuff going on around the world right now, and many of the routes to money success are heavily overcomplicated and undesirable in execution.

I have been keeping calm on my end through working on music and editing (often strange and comical) TikTok videos (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9__Jq3hyHuI), commenting on HN and Twitter, and through doing occasional stand up comedy open mic nights...

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